Improving retention and confidence through cross-course collaborative project-based learning

This work in progress introduces cross-course collaborative, project-based learning, or C³ PBL. C³ PBL builds on established collaborative project-based learning ideas that have been shown to improve retention at various institutions, by introducing collaboration that spans multiple courses in the same term. We discuss how such a collaboration between students in different courses can change the undergraduate educational experience to improve retention, community, and self-confidence. For our work we are focusing on a curriculum based approach, leveraging collaborative project-based learning experiences to affect the mindset and culture of our department. We present lessons learned from an initial pilot of C³ PBL deployed over two semesters. The pilot looks at the pairing of introductory level courses with an upper level software engineering class. The collaboration is centered on the idea of experienced students in the upper level software engineering course working with novice students from the introductory courses. The logistics explored has lead to more meaningful interaction and assessment in the second semester offering of C³ PBL.